Varien Announces His New Project, Koinu

Words by Pia Talwar. Earlier in February, Varien, A.K.A. Nick, announced his new project named Koinu, which represents the combination of electronic music and anime aesthetics. Nick gained his core fan-base through Varien, and released two LPs on Monstercat, handful of singles and received well over 3 million streams while playing shows

throughout the year. The Florida native recently started Koinu, which is a mixture of eastern culture, bass music and unique anime branding. Varien made the announcement of his side project on his Facebook page, saying, “The idea for Koinu came from the fact that Varien is so serious, and calculated, and pretty damn artistic. I don’t discredit these merits by any means! But they do no represent the kind of person I am in reality.” Varien goes on to explain that his personality is pretty “energetic, fun” and “care-free,” which is what Koinu represents. “Koinu is my Knife Party, Varien is my Pendulum,” the DJ/Producer explains. He will also be releasing a whole anime streetwear clothing line and announced that he will be coming out with a variety of fun collaborations with people like Shadient and other artists, anime studios, Kpop and Jpop idols. Koinu made his debut remix of CL’s “Hello” and then released with a more mellow trap original called “Milkshakes and Chill.” He recently released “#Shibesquad,” which gained a lot of attention with its dub step infused beats. Check out his latest track titled “Gainax Bounce!”